Twisted

The Secret Desires and Bizarre Double Life of Dr. Richard Sharpe

By: John Glatt

Narrated by: Shaun Grindell

Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

He had a successful career, a selfless wife, and three loving children.

When high school sweethearts Karen and Richard Sharpe married, they shared an interest in medicine, a desire for family, and a dream for the future. For Karen, that dream became a nightmare. After years of abuse at the hands of her physician husband, she put an end to their 26-year marriage. Fearing a crushing divorce settlement, Richard ended the marriage first by unloading a .22-caliber rifle into Karen's chest. The murder revealed more about the millionaire doctor - and his double life - than polite Boston society was prepared for.

He also had a secret that shot his picture-perfect world to hell.

Behind the doors of their upscale Massachusetts home, Dr. Sharpe was a compulsive cross-dresser with a penchant for his own daughter's underwear - a respected family man who had not only been taking hormones to grow breasts, but who stole his wife's birth control pills to supplement them. But not even his own family could have imagined that it would take cold-blooded murder to finally reveal the good doctor's disturbing secrets, and shatter forever the prosaic facade of an all-American family.

©2003 John Glatt (P)2020 Tantor

Factual account

I'm a true crime fan, but this tale just didn't grab me. Maybe it's because I favor the psychological aspects over the facts of the case. The narrator did a fine job, but his British accent just seemed wrong for this American story.

Very sad and well written true crime story

It was really a well written story and kept my interest until the very end. The only
draw-back is this narrator's voice, accent and monotone style of telling this tale.

Terrible Performance, Outdated Language

I’m a completist, so I finished this but only on a speed of 1.5. There were such odd pauses, stilted reading and repetition of facts (okay, he took his wife’s birth control pills to grow breasts) that this was not a winner for me. I think we have much more realistic ways to define non-binary individuals now - and much more direct ways to address domestic violence, which is the real heart of the issue.

The title fits this story

Here we can see how twisted, abusive one person can be. I thought it was well written, interesting, shocking. I feel so sorry for the family and all they had to go through, the Dr is another thing, he was beyond terrible.

The narrator did a good job putting a voice to the story that pulled you in. I thought they did a good job, no repeating of words, no background noise and no volume changes. Has a pleasant voice, easy to listen to.

A very dull read

I’ve read books by this author before so this book came as quite a disappointment.

From the beginning to the end it was very dry. Besides there were a lot of repetitions.

All in all it was hard getting through and seemed very long even though it wasn’t

Great narrator though

*this review has been placed on multiple platforms

Twisted is the Right Title

I love true crime books, movies, TV series but this one just didn’t really grab me. The narrator was monotone and that made it drag on. Also there was just straight facts, nothing really psychological going on within the writing or details.